Cleric in hijab rape claim

By EMILY DENTOctober 26,
2006ONE of
Australia’s most senior Islamic clerics has triggered outrage after comparing
women who don’t wear a headscarf to “uncovered meat who invite rape."

Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali - considered the most
senior Islamic leader by many Muslims in Australia and New Zealand - denied he
was condoning rape when he made the comments in a sermon.

Hilali said: “If you take out uncovered meat and
place it outside ... without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault
is it, the cats’ or the uncovered meat’s?

“The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in
her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.”

He apologized to any women he had offended, saying
they were free to dress as they wished.

It is not the first time the cleric has triggered
a controversy. In 2004 he caused outrage when he said the Sept. 11 attacks were
“God’s work against the oppressors.”

Hilali said later he did not mean that he
supported the attacks, or terrorism.

The row comes during the heated debate John Reid
started this month when he asked for female British Muslims to remove the veil.

Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru
Goward said Hilali’s comment was an incitement to rape and that Australia’s
Muslims should force him to stand down.

“This is inciting young men to a violent crime
because it is the woman’s fault,” Goward Australian TV. “It is time the Islamic
community did more than say they were horrified. I think it is time he left.”

Aussie Prime Minister John Howard also rejected
the comments as unacceptable.